After the Famine

©After the Famine

Although the famine started in 1845, its after effects still remain visible in remote places. The remains of wallsteads with trees growing out of them and abandoned potato ridges bear silent testimony to the awful consequences when crops fail and there is a lack of political will to deal with the crisis.

Abandoned Potato Ridges engraved almost
cemetery like in the landscape

Emigration
Those with resources emigrated but many died on journey. Fifty nine emigrant Ships sank enroute to America from 1847 to 1853. At Grosse Isle quarantine station cemetery, Quebec, there is a memorial to 5294 persons from Ireland who were dead on arrival in 1847 or died shortly afterwards. On 24th April 1847, the ship Exmouth sailed from Derry port destined for Quebec with 240 passengers and 12 crew. Three days later it was shipwrecked at Sanaig on the Scottish Island, Islay, with the loss of all except three crew members.

The sailing ship "Jeanie Johnston" built in Quebec 1847.
Between 1848 & 1855 this ship made 16 voyages to North America, sailing to Quebec, Baltimore and New York. In that time she carried over 2500 emigrants and remarkably no lives were lost on board. The fare to Quebec was £3.10 shillings ($5.50) & the average transatlantic crossing was 46.75 days. The fare represented nearly half a years wages for an Irish labourer. This Ship was the inspiration for Pete St.John to write the song; "The Fields of Athenry" in 1979.

Replica of the sailing ship "Jeanie Johnston" on Lough Swilly

Land Reform
The reform of the land system which was called for by the Quakers in 1849 was very slow to take place and although dis-establishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869 should have helped; rack-renting, evictions and evasion of reforms by Landlords still continued. By way of example, when Landlords were required to give tenants 12 months notice to quit, Lord Leitrim (William Sydney Clements, third Earl of Leitrim), whose estate included areas of Fanad , Milford and Carrigart, had a "notice to quit" printed on the reverse side of his rent receipts thereby putting his tenants constantly on 12 months notice. Lord Leitrim was assassinated in 1878 when his coach was ambushed at Cratlagh Wood, near Milford. By all accounts Lord Leitrim was a harsh Landlord and it is said that he treated his Protestant tenants even more severely than Catholics because he expected them to do things better.

The last straw
Potato Blight returned in 1878 and farmers got into arrears with their rents resulting in threats of eviction. The turning point for the tenant farmer came in 1879 at Irishtown, County Mayo when local Parish Priest, Canon Burke, came into possession of his brother's lands and at once threatened his tenants with eviction if they did not pay arrears of rent. That their own Parish Priest should behave in this way was seen as the "last straw". A massive protest by tenant farmers was called for by Michael Davitt (1846-1906), son of a Mayo tenant farmer whose family had been evicted in 1850. Over 7,000 attended a demonstration in Irishtown and the Land League was formed to oppose evictions and campaign for occupiers to own their lands. Within a few days the Priest relented and granted a rent reduction of 25% but this gesture came too late. In October 1879 the Land League opposed and prevented the eviction of Anthony Dempsey, Lunamore, County Mayo. This was the beginning of the "Land War" (1879-1882) which had the support of Charles Stewart Parnell MP who was a powerful force in Irish politics at that time.

Boycott
In 1880 another landmark dispute arose on the County Mayo estate of Lord Erne. The Land Agent, Captain Charles Boycott(1832-1897), had a dispute with his farm labourers and he dismissed them all even though his harvest was ready in the fields. The Land League would not allow anyone to work in their places, so Mr. Boycott retaliated with the decision to evict his tenant farmers. However, he was unable to find anyone prepared to serve the Civil Processes necessary to secure evictions. When no one in the vicinity was prepared to either work for him or supply him with goods or services, he had to arrange for fifty workers to come from Ulster to save his harvest. These new workers had to be guarded by 2,000 troops at a cost of £3,500. Soon after that, Charles Boycott withdrew and retired to England. It is from this incident that the word boycott, with its sinister meaning, entered and remains in the English language.

Land Acts
The efforts of Charles Stewart Parnell secured the Land Act of 1881 which allowed for limited security of tenure and several further Acts up to 1923 completed the reforms which allowed Irish tenant farmers to become proprietors of their lands.

Better Times

The Poet, Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1967) captured a return to better times, for the
potato and the farmer, in his poem; "Spraying The Potatoes"

On the right is a picture of his monument, along the Grand canal, at Baggot Street Bridge, Dublin.

According to Old Charlie Banker(1844-1938), it was thought that potato crop failure was due to deficiency in the soil and that the crop would do better when planted in peaty soil but this also failed. The first significant relief for the Doherty (Banker) family was the introduction of a Potato variety, named "Champion", bred in Scotland in 1876. The Champions were planted in the Ailk Braes and kept growing until the October Fair day in Rathmullan (second or third Thursday?) when a sharp frost stopped growth but there was a bumper yield.

It is perhaps worth noting that, Charles, Thomas & Hugh, children of Hugh and Susan(Sheridan) Doherty were born during the course of the Famine, in 1844, 1847 and 1849 respectively and lived to be 94, 84 and 87 years of age. Charles, brother of Hugh, married Sheila Sheridan in 1848 and had children born in 1849 and 1851 who also survived into old age. The average male life expectancy in 1844 was 38 years.

My Granny, Margaret (Boyle)Doherty, said that people who resorted to the seashore for food were considered to be "down and out." Some people gathered Carrigeen Moss from the seaside rocks which was boiled and fed to calves instead of milk. Although young calves appeared to thrive well on this diet, dealers were reluctant to buy them; presumably because the calf's digestive system would have remained underdeveloped and would then have difficulty in digesting grass.

Ellis Island Emigration Station (red tiled roofs) 1892-1924
New York Harbour
Annie Moore, a 15 years old Irish girl, was the first person to pass through its doors in 1892.

Twin Towers of The World Trade Centre (back left of picture)
On 11th Sept. 2001, Terrorists, crashed two hijacked passenger planes into the buildings which collapsed. A total of 2937 lives were lost in the buildings and 147 in the planes not counting the hijackers.
This area is now known as "Ground Zero".